Laudrup eyes European run

01 August 2013 11:17

Michael Laudrup leads Swansea into Thursday night's Europa League third qualifying round clash with Malmo confident they can upset some of the competition's best sides if they reach the group stage.

The Swans are making their first continental appearance in 22 years thanks to their triumph in last season's Capital One Cup.

Malmo, who sit second in the Swedish Allsvenskan at the midway point of the season, represent a potentially tricky hurdle to overcome for the Welsh club after their 9-0 aggregate win over Hibernian in the last round.

Swansea need to get through this and one further knockout round in order to reach the group stage of the competition, and Laudrup believes they will challenge strongly if they get that far.

He said: "I think this tie is quite even because they are where they are and we are just at the beginning of the season. But I would be disappointed if we didn't go through to the next round.

"I think we have a team that has the quality to go to at least the group stage. But we have to show that in the next eight days against opponents who are match fit. When I look at our squad I think we have a team that can disturb a lot of teams out there in Europe, even some big clubs in big leagues.

"Now, we have to play a team who are second right now in the Swedish league and they have that match fitness because of playing so many games. We will be up against it in these two games."

Unlike many of his players, Laudrup has previous experience of the Europa League having guided Getafe to the quarter-finals when the tournament was known as the Uefa Cup during the 2007-08 season.

The Dane hopes Swansea's campaign will provide the club with the sort of memories still being savoured at his former team.

He said: "It's a huge experience and that experience, I hope, will go further for the team, the club, and the players. It's a great experience. I still remember in Getafe, playing in the play-off against Twente. We went through and then we played teams like Anderlecht and we won our group.